​In 2009, we began the weekly Local Top 10, a series we hoped would prove that New Yorkers were far too stubborn to let the record store go. The series ran until last month, when we literally ran out of stores to cover--not the best sign for the future of music retailing in New York City. Before we gave up altogether though, we went back to all the stores we originally profiled and asked them how their year had gone. Below, we chronicle the top 10 records sold in 2009 at each store. Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion was a citywide monster, appearing on lists from hardcore haven Generation Records to the crate-diggers-only Rebel Rebel.

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In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that actually sold in the last week at a store near you.

Image via SoundBitesNYC's photostream

​Rebel Rebel Records is like your typical Neil Young record: messy, cluttered with ideas, but ultimately charming. The dusty Bleecker Street record shop focuses on "anything that's good, from classical to punk," says owner David Shebiro, 47. Shebiro looks like an old-school Nashville session player, with a western shirt and slicked-back gray hair. He's the only one able to navigate through the shop's record-filled cardboard boxes. The folk section? It's on the floor, right next to New Dance. "Everything that doesn't sell in new shops ship back to the record company," Shebiro says. "We hold on to it -- if it's good." Business is struggling. Following the trend we've seen in these shops lately, Rebel Rebel mostly stays afloat through rare and out-of-print material. As I walk out the door, Shebiro has one last thought: "Tell the people that if they really don't want to miss us one day, come in and see us."

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In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that actually sold in the last week at a store near you.

​To get into the discreet Record Runner music store on Jones Street, you have to hit the buzzer outside. Owner John Pita leaves his office in the back room to let you in. Once you're inside, the store looks like a teenage pop music obsessive's bedroom circa 1985: stuffy, full of boxes and massive posters of Duran Duran, Madonna, and U2. Pita, 50, has helmed the shop for three decades. In recent years, he's shifted the store's focus from new releases to singles and rare Japanese imports. "My customers are very in tune with 'Did you know the German version has one more song?'" he says. "You have to be up to their knowledge." The store also carries collectibles: it recently acquired a gigantic U2 collection from one of the world's former biggest collectors. There's old crew tour jackets, band calendars, and rare albums. Pinto recently sold a hand-numbered copy of the band's first single, U2 3, for $3000 dollars (only 1000 were ever printed)."We've always tried to find a different route," he says.

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In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that actually sold in the last week at a store near you.

​Before opening Music Matters on a whim in 1998, Jason Figel knew nothing about running a business. "I didn't know how to run a cash register until I bought one. I didn't even know new releases came out on Tuesday," he says. "I was naive." Now, Figel's cramped store on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope is one of the last go-to all-genre music shops in the city. Because the Park Slope population is now younger than it was a decade ago, Figel has shifted focus from selling older rock (his tastes lie in eighties metal: "Ratt, Poison, Slayer") to indie music, pushing lots of Pavement and Built to Spill. Figel says business has been hurting for a year and a half, but he blames the economy rather than iTunes and file-sharing. "When the economy starts picking back up, is music going to do better to or stay stuck?" he says. "That's the big question. If this stays stuck, who wants to be in a declining industry? I might have to say forget this, it had its run, and it's over."

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In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that actually sold in the last week at a store near you.

Academy Records, Williamsburg Annex. Pic via.

​When we phoned the Academy Records Annex in Williamsburg, 32-year-old employee Caleb Eraaten was listening to Peter Ivers Band's bizzare 1969 LP Knight of the Blue Commununion. "A very strange record," Eraaten told us. "A weird melding of all sorts of ridiculous genres. Classical and jazz and psychedelic rock." The massive used- and hard-to-find LP haven opened five years ago as a larger sister to its original East Village store. Since then, the location has hosted in-store appearances by everyone from crazy psychedelic quartet the Black Lips to Folkway Records legend Michael Hurley. The Annex keeps with the times via a blog, and its website allows you to search the stores catalog of '45s, with genres including folk, psych, country, and reggae. Unlike many floundering music outlets, Academy's vinyl focus has kept business alive. "I'm sure it has something to do with downloading to mp3s and CDs becoming unnecessary," Eraaten says.

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In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that actually sold in the last week at a store near you.

​Since opening the brick-walled Good Records four years ago, Jon Sklute has built a sizeable collection of used and hard-to-find LPs. Sklute, 32, moved to New York from Berkely, Calif. in 1995. He opened the store because, he says, "There's nothing I love better than going through records and listening to music." The store attracts plenty of village oddballs, as well as kids seeking to add to their hand-me-down classic rock collections. Fleetwood Mac's Rumours goes out the door daily. "It's kind of emblematic of a certain type of record that is selling a lot to younger kids," he says. Prices run from one dollar to several hundred. Sklute's favorite part of the job is buying entire collections and trying to trace their history. "It's one thing if you're going to buy from a shuttered store or distributor," he says, "But when you buy a collection, all those records have meaning to someone."

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In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that sold in the last week at a store near you.

Brian Dube

​When you walk inside Bleecker Bob's, there's a dusty, brown, fraying rug visible off to your right. It looks ratty, but it's the same carpet that once covered the stage of the Night Owl, a former West Village nightclub and home to early performances by Dylan and Hendrix. Bleecker Bob's has occupied the former Night Owl space since 1984, and has been a cornerstone of the New York punk scene for far longer. "I remember taking the train from Penn Station. We'd buy our records and go to CB's," says longtime customer Matt Lutz, 37.

Originally opened by Bob Plotnick on MacDougal Street in the early sixties, Bleecker Bob's was one of the first retailers to import punk 45s from England. Johnny Thunders used to come in with New York Dolls vinyl and autograph the discs for a few extra dollars "so he could go out and score more junk," says Javier, a current employee. And Lou Reed used to "send his maid by to pick up records." Javier says the store can afford to stay open because of its rare record collection, which today includes a hard-to-find Beatles Israeli pressing of Help! for $200. "We try to keep the store filled with as many rare items as we can," he says. "That's the only way we are surviving." Adds customer Matt Lutz, "This is the last thing in Manhattan that reminds me of old Manhattan."

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In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that sold in the last week at a store near you.

Patrick Doyle

​Strider Records and Collectibles sits on Jones Street, the narrow road Bob Dylan once stood on for the cover photo of his second LP, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. "I must get asked to take people's photo there 50 times a year," says owner Bob Noguera, 52. "It's like Abbey Road." (Freewheelin' is one of Strider's top sellers). Strider's has a musty, eye-watering atmosphere that feels straight out of your grandmothers old attic. Like an attic, there's a lot of random stuff: some 1940s Zenith AM radios, an Alice Cooper School's Out gold record, and seashells hanging all over the place. The location has made it a central spot for affluent musicians who hang out in the area. Noguera has served customers like Tom Petty, who perused Billie Holiday records past midnight, Shel Silverstein, who was a calypso music aficionado, and Johnny Cash, who often came in to buy his own records to give to friends since he didn't own any himself. Oh, and about the seashells? "My girlfriend is really into nautical stuff," Noguera says. "I agreed to let her store a bunch of stuff here."

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Dr. Conrad Murray

​Just ten days before Michael Jackson's death, Dr. Conrad Murray sent a letter to patients in his clinics in Houston and Las Vegas, telling them he was leaving his practices to serve as personal physician for Michael Jackson on his 50-date This Is It London run, calling it "a once in a lifetime opportunity." Less than two weeks later, Murray was the center of a murder investigation. Authorities raided Murray's clinics. Jackson's death was ruled a homicide last month from a deadly dose of propofol, a drug Murray admitted administering hours before he Jackson died. Last month, he issued a teary YouTube video to thank supporters. "Because of all that is going on, I am afraid to make phone calls or return my e-mail," he said. We don't know what will become of Murray, but this list is a look back on some of pop culture's other notorious doctors and enablers, and what happened to them.

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In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that sold in the last week at a store near you.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/narradora/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Two weeks ago, we profiled Generation Records, one of the city's great havens for punk, hardcore and metal. This week, we bring you Generation's sister store, the more-mainstream Bleecker Street Records, located on 6th Avenue in the West Village. The store specializes in rock, jazz, and old-school R&B and soul. "No dance, no techno, no house," says Nino, 40, a manager who has worked at the store since its conception 12 years ago. Nino works at the store with childhood friend Dino and the store's owner, "a friend of ours." ("Everybody trusts everybody," he says.) Bleecker Street features one of the city's last major storefront record displays in the city, full of classic rock box sets. Inside, record's are displayed on the walls, and aisles are full of new and used CDs and LPs. "I prefer CD," Nino says. "But you have these die-hard LP collectors. They love the crackly sound of the LP. They swear it's better than CD. I would never gotten that, but that's what makes them happy."

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